Merlin's Legacy
by EM Vought
Summary: A story of Merlin with his many times great grandson at the ruins of Camelot.


The old man groaned as he rested his aged bones on a rock in the green, verdant clearing. He looked down on the ruins of a castle. His lined and wrinkled face was drawn and pained. His clear blue eyes were faded with years as he gazed at the old stones, now half covered by the encroaching overgrowth. In his mind he didn't see the fallen and derelict shell. He saw the white ramparts gleaming in the sun, banners waving proudly in the breeze, light and gay hearts laughing and festivities. A feeling of safety and freedom emanated those walls. It was all gone now. The table that they stood around was gone now…the swords lost to the winds, the rings hadn't been seen in years. They could have been lost in the final battle, stolen or kicked in some crack in the stones. He was the last, why they left him alive, he didn't know. Not when they killed or tortured the others. Camelot, that great castle, was lost, Lyanesse sunk into the ocean, and Avalon…the women tortured, raped, cloistered and shunning the world now. All had been lost that fateful day. He didn't even know where Arthur was buried. Only the Lady who appeared and took his body knew and she was gone now…they were all gone, lost from the world and his sight forever. If any still remembered those carefree days or yore they were lost in myth and legend now. He had been a boy then…not more than twenty when he first met Arthur, just a babe himself. He hadn't known the long years then, the long lonely years after the attack. That lost him his wife and son, leaving him only his granddaughter to raise. She had been a light to him in those dark hours. Even when she grew up and married she welcomed him into her home, her husband had loved him like a father, their children had always knows him and their children…he didn't know why or how he'd lived this long. Way passed when he should have gone the way of the earth. Why he should live when his friends were gone.

"Grandfather?"

He turned surprised to be interrupted in his thoughts and found his little Sal there. "What are you doing here?" He asked gently patting the seat beside him.

"Mama was worried about you. She asked me to come and make sure you were all right."

"I remember when your mother was just a twinkle in her mother's eye. And when she was just a twinkle in her mother's."

"You sure do know a lot."

"Of course I do. You see those ruins over yonder." He asked nodded to them.

"Yes, Mama says we're never to play there. Something horrible happened there."

"Something horrible did happen there." He said running a hand over the boy's too long black locks. "These are ruins of Camelot, my boy. A castle where the Great King Arthur ruled."

"You're ancient, Grandfather," Sal said. "But you're not THAT old, besides Camelot is down where we live in the South."

"Oh, my boy," he chuckled. "I am that old. I am Merlin."

The boy was confused. "But, Grandfather, your name is Myrddin."

"Yes, my name is Myrddin, that's the Welsh, son. In the Anglican, it's Merlin. I was Arthur's friend and confidant and helped him during his rule at Camelot."

"With the Knights of the Round Table! Galahad and Lancelot and all the other men—"

"NO!" Merlin's voice was thunderous from such an old man. The boy stared wide-eyed at him. "The tales are false, lad. They perpetrate that the Knights of the Round Table were Men! Men! That's preposterous!"

"It is?" He loved hearing those stories and they weren't true?

"The Knights of the Round Table were creatures, Sal. This so called Lancelot, Arthur's right hand, was a centaur. They weren't even all men! No, there was a Veela and a Moon Fairy, not to mention an Elf, a Goblin, and a Merrow. Oh, there were some men too, around that Table all were equal and when we were in that circle with Arthur and Lyana and even that Morgana were one in spirit then the Wizarding World was safe…"

"What happened?"

"Then the day came. Vikings came…we fought so hard, but it wasn't enough. They came when we weren't all there. We tried to form the circle, but we were too few, our power combined was not enough to hold back the tide." A tear fell from his eye. "Camelot was lost and then Lyanesse sunk to the waves in Lyana's last effort to save her people…Avalon was taken not long after. All gone now…the only thing that is left now is this ruin here that once was the grandest castle in the land."

"If even Merlin couldn't stop it, what hope do we have now against those that would hurt us?"

"Oh, my son, no young man, no matter how great, can know his destiny. I was just a regular boy like you, I had no idea what my life would be. And neither can you. But when I look at you I see greatness. I know you're thinking I was born like this, but I wasn't. I grew and learned and I made choices that were wrong, I made my life what it is, and I have very few regrets. We were too complacent with our freedom, with our unity, and with our peace. You have your life before you, you can do something great, Salazar."


End file.
